New Adventures to Tasmania

Things have gotten a little crazy on my end here, with work that needed attending too, and family that needed attention, so my traveling had recently suffered. But seeing as the family has been satisfied, and the work has been completed, so I’m off and running and planning my next trip.

A love of mine, if anyone has yet to figure out, is food and wine, so my next large trip has been decided. I am headed off to go gallivanting around the wonderful island of Tasmania in Australia. About an hour and a half flight from Melbourne, it was one of the places that I missed the last two times that I toured the Outback.

The 2010 Taste Festival runs from December 28, 10 to January 3, 11 this year and is known as Tasmania’s largest food and wine festival that is right on the waterfront in Hobart. Accommodation and flights start filling up as early as May, and visitors flock from Australia and further abroad to experience the many food and wine booths that are set up to allow visitors to enjoy the fruits of Tasmania’s labor!

You can check out the website with more information here.

While the main reason for the trip is to experience this amazing event, we also intend to experience some of the history and adrenaline that Tasmania has to offer, with treetop walkways, cable hang gliders and of course, some of the most amazing walks that are to be found in the South Pacific.

If you have been to Tasmania, please give me your feedback on what to see and what to do! And if you are a tour operator, or accommodation owner, please feel free to give me your recommendations on what is a must see, or must stay, and what to stay away from! I look forward to hearing from you all!

How Cheap Is Cheap Enough?

I know during this global recession, everyone is trying to get a good deal.  No one wants to spend too much, and no one wants to spend more than they have to.  My whole question is how much is too much?

After my last post, I received some emails regarding the swine flu (to which we are no longer supposed to be calling the swine flu because someone got offended?) and decided to investigate what this really is doing to our global travel economy.

While travel was down due to the recession to begin with, this really hasn't hit the industry yet.  The one key think that I was noticing was the fact that everyone seemed to think that they would get to go to Mexico for nothing now.  

Comments I heard were - "I bet we can get flights for $10 to Mexico now", "They must be giving trips away!"

But after speaking to a couple of the agents, they put these fallacies to rest, saying that only one airline was flying to Mexico, and that tickets were more expensive than ever, because some people still wanted to go on their holidays.  Supply is down, and strangely enough, demand is up.

The same holds true with Europe.  Airlines are struggling to fill their planes, Flight Centre is attempting to maintain their footing (with airline price guarantees for international flights) and still, people are waiting for prices to fall.  The first time I went to Australia, almost a decade ago, I took the milk run, as there were no direct flights, and paid over $1800.00.  Now, you can get a direct flight from Melbourne to Los Angeles for $1016.00.  If you will take one stop in New Zealand, you can have it for $950.  But still people are claiming that this is too much to pay.

My question is, how much is too much.  When will it be cheap enough?

The airlines have to make sure that they can pay for the fuel, the upkeep and their staff to get us safely from one destination to another.  After the recent scare that passengers had on a flight from Sydney to Vancouver, we would think that paying a little more to ensure our own safety would be better?

My love/hate relationship

While the snow continues to fall, I am reminded of my last two homes, in New Zealand and Australia, where the snow didn't find me.  I had to go find it.  And when I did see snow, it was a completely joyful reunion where I frolicked and played like a small child again!  But the difference was that I didn't see it every day.  It didn't plague me on my days off, taunting me with nice days when I am stuck inside working, and then snowing every chance it gets when I'm allowed to join the outside world.

Here we are, sitting at the half way point of April and we are still getting snow.  A winter day in Melbourne means rain and wind.  Same as a lot of the UK, save Scotland who gets their fair share of snow.  A winter day in the Bay of Plenty in New Zealand, means rain and cold winds.  I can take the wind.  I can stand the rain.  What I'm a little sick of is this white stuff that is a cross between ice and rain, and brings with it freezing cold temperatures, and misery.

Why am I here?  Why do I call Calgary home?  I don't.  That probably explains everything.

On Days Like Today...

Once again the snow is falling outside and I am surrounded by the crazy white stuff.  The only saving grace is the fact that it's not actually cold outside as well.  But it does bring to mind the craziness that ensued when a girlfriend and I were still in Australia.

We had decided that in the wet and dreary winter, that is nothing compared to this I might add, that we were going to drive up to the mountains to get pictures of us with the snow.

Now these aren't Rocky Mountain type mountains, but they were more than our foothills, so we will continue calling them mountains for the time being.

I remember us driving up these crazy back roads, having no chains or supplies - kinda like we would have done in Canada - and finally getting to a point where we could go no further.  (Well without paying that is) So we pulled over to a pullout, and got the camera out.  But before we did, we put on our boardshorts, sandals and took off our jackets and posed!  The pictures were great and got a whole pile of respect from those back in Canada, but man was it still freaking cold!

Great pictures, and great memories.  Too bad this snow isn't like that snow.  Instead of having to live in it, we got back in the car and went back to civilization - which didn't have any snow!